Shen

This build guide for Shen is for top lane and is by Liquid Quas, a Challenger player on League of Legends and currently plays top for Team Liquid. Shen is an exceptional tank and split pusher that has always been the stable of the top lane.

Cause Dorans shield gives little to no sustain in lane, yes it gives HP regen, but compared to boots 3pots which gives 450 hp regen, and cloth 5pots which give 750 hp regen, and the items from there build into other items. Dorans is a really bad starting item unless your champion has innate lifesteal or spellvamp.

They also give 120 extra health and the sustain they do give paired with the natural sustain you have do allow you to trade and almost always come out on top unless it is a heavy sustain lane like irielia. Not to mention the armor goes a long way early, i know it delays the Sunfire and with that you are unkillable if you play smart but i normally only go it if im have trouble vs an AD champ normally GPs that are super agressive early.

At Level 6 - that being the earliest I can imagine you affording 2x Doran's Shield and Boots of Speed - with the guide's runes and masteries, you would have 2,315 Effective Health against physical damage without accounting for Armor Penetration at the total expense of 1300g (assuming you bought nothing but those core items).

At the same level, with the same runes and masteries, you would have 2,367 Effective Health against physical damage at the total expense of 1565g if you bought Boots+3 and then a Giant's Belt.

So, for 265g more, you have gained 52 Effective Health against physical damage and put yourself 950g closer to your Sunfire Cape than if you bought two Doran's Shields. Furthermore, the regeneration provided by Health Potions is far better at mitigating a sudden loss of HP than the 8 HP/5 from a Doran's Shield in your starting item roster. 8 HP/5 is only 1.6 HP per second - barely a noteworthy increase to Shen's inherent regeneration through Vorpal Blade (especially when paired with his innate HP regen and the Vigor mastery). A Health Potion restores 10 HP per second. That means less time hanging back to regenerate lost health, possibly losing out on minion kills (thus gold and maybe even experience), which directly translates to a more threatening lane presence and better farm/harass.

There simply isn't enough justification for taking two Doran's Shields over an item with more significance to his core build.

I feel not taking teleport on solo top Shen is a huge mistake. He doesn't really need the extra lane pressence of an offensive summoner and you give up so much map pressence by not being able to teleport back to lane after an ult. Ulting without teleport is gonna cost you your tower a good portion of the time since Shen isn't an adept pusher before he gets sunfire cape, so the lane will generally already be pushing toward your tower.

I'm curious to how you feeling about taking Teleport on Shen. Do you feel the loss of in-lane presence is too risky? I just worry that an Ult to bot lane/mid etc might cause your tower to die if you happen to have a really aggressive pusher matchup.

I think he's referring to the situation where the enemy top laner usually hard-pushes the lane whenever Shen ults away. With teleport summoner, you can prevent people from doing that, at leat whenever tele is up.

I also use shen solo top, masteries 9 / 21 / 0, spells: heal & flash, but the items and order kind of differ from yours, check this out.

This gives me a better early game & control over the enemy, good cc reduction, good hp, good ap (for shen), good Mres & Def, AoE (sunfire), extra life (which is almost useless cuz you never die, but just in case), depending on the situation I get abyssal scepter before sunfire replacing guardian angel.

Before you make uninformed commentary based on a single, 'seeming' flaw, at least run the build through a generator to test the numbers. This guy's build costs an extra 1000g, but provides an increase to many of Shen's most relevant stats. Armor, Magic Resist (and thus Effective Health), Ability Power, Move Speed; all of those see at least a slight increase with this proposed build. If you were going to point out a flaw, don't make it the Lich Bane, which would provide an extra 170~ physical damage on each of Shen's hits (since Energy management forces him to pace his abilities and attack in between). Considering his attack speed and his reliance on using his abilities effectively to significantly contribute to his team, that Lich Bane proc. would more or less cover the difference in AD between the two builds (except in the case of Elementz's 18% crit chance).

There are other flaws to be noted, though. First, you're crippling Shen's early game by taking away the potions that give him enough regen to sustain himself and establish a strong presence from the word "Go!" Once you pop that first potion, you're harassable, and without any source of health regen, you can be forced out of the lane very quickly by someone with better lane control. That extra 20 AP certainly boosts your abilities a bit, but it doesn't help you last hit minions unless you rely fully on Q and Ki Strike (thus sacrificing your own harass). Instead, start with Boots+3 or Cloth+5, as usual, and upgrade to Merc. Treads or Guardian Angel respectively.

Second, you're sacrificing the team utility of Abyssal Scepter and replacing it (in terms of effective Auras) with Guardian Angel's respawn. This is both a gift and a curse. Being able to rise from the dead after being blasted down and throw out /another/ Taunt to give your team that extra aid in the 5v5 scenario is definitely very useful, and no one can argue that the item gives a significant boost to MR and Armor, but it makes Shen less useful if he isn't being focused. The Abyssal Scepter is something of a soft taunt in the way that you are providing a constant boost to the damage of your AP-based team mates, while also functioning as a personal damage boost and MR buff for Shen. On this point, I wouldn't argue that your option is /worse/ than Elementz's, but it certainly has drawbacks.

So, I wouldn't say that your build is a bad suggestion at all. I may even try it out since I'm picking up Shen in an effort to whittle out a place for myself in the tanking scene. It certainly offsets a couple of Shen's faults, while increasing his maneuverability (and thus his ability to position) and basic survivability to augment his inherent strengths. A solid alternative, in my opinion.